


The Death Of *Mute, by Seo-Yeong

by queenoffruits



Category: Analogue: A Hate Story/Hate Plus (Visual Novel series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-20
Updated: 2013-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-05 05:43:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1090296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenoffruits/pseuds/queenoffruits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Seo-Yeong made another choice?</p><p>Warning: Spoilers for Hate Plus.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Death Of *Mute, by Seo-Yeong

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kaesa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaesa/gifts).



> Seo-yeong, 한국/Korean, March 9, 2045

"Seo-yeong, please... if you love me, then do this for me," *Mute begged.

She actually begged me. I stared at her in horror. I heard it myself, but I could hardly believe she'd do this to me, to So-hi, to the entire ship! I trusted her. She told me that she'd stake **everything** on this!

My knife hand at Ryu's throat trembled. I felt like I didn't have a choice... and that was when I realized, the one who didn't have a choice was *Mute. It was in her programming. *Mute would always choose the safety of the ship first, and she considered herself essential to the ship's safety. With such unacceptable risks, *Mute would always fold in this situation. I was sure that Ryu knew that too.

"*Mute... I love you... but I _can't_ do that," I said quietly, unable to look her in the eye as I defied her. I had to do it... because she couldn't. I had to do it _because I love her._

"Seo-yeong, please...!" *Mute pleaded. It wrenched my gut to hear her like this.

Ryu spoke calmly. "You just said you love her. You won't go through with this. As the pressure mounts while you, while _your love_ is running out of time, you'll cave--" Ryu yelped as I cut him off with a snap of my blade into his shoulder. Slashing him felt sickeningly good. Blood on the end of my knife, I brought it back to his throat.

"Disarm the bomb. **Now.** " I growled.

"No." Ryu said, resolute.

*Mute made a pained face, "Seo-yeong, please, I don't want to have to, but you keep this up, I'll have to order my men to--"

"Men, I hereby relieve the Councilor of duty. Her ability to lead right now has been compromised! Do not listen to her!" I barked, my voice trembling.

The men were tense. Of course they were.

*Mute looked defeated. I'm sure she could hardly believe I'd done that to her.

I know I hardly believed it.

Eun-a was staring intently at Ryu the entire time.

"You're running out of time," Ryu said.

" **You're** running out time." I said, pressing the blade against his neck. "Disarm the bomb!"

"K... Kill me. See if it helps you." Ryu was intent to play a game of chicken with me, was he? "If you kill me, no one will be able to disarm the bomb."

"I'm not going to kill you, Ryu." I declared and slammed the butt of my knife against his breast. "If you kill *Mute," like you people killed my husband, "you will _wish_ I'd kill you, because I will torture you. I will torture you, and your wretched fiance, for the rest of your miserable lives. If I have to give you a blood transfusion myself to keep you alive, I will do it, just to torture you."

"You're bluffing." Ryu said. Does he never sweat!? What was this man, a pig?

"No, **you're** bluffing. You know how I know? Because you're doing this for power. You're not a true believer. You won't suffer for your cause."

"That doesn't matter. The Neo-Confucians beneath me are true believers. They'll fight."

"And they'll die! We outnumber your forces nearly 10 to 1!"

Ryu gave pause, breathing slowly. "... two minutes."

"Disarm the bomb!"

"Seo-yeong, don't do this to me!"

"Ma'am, trust me!"

"Ryu, I'll give you the password...!"

"I won't let him do a thing with it."

I felt the pressure... but I didn't cave. I knew Ryu had to feel the same pressure too...

... and he cracked first. "Guards!!"

Electoral Monitors stormed the room. A fire fight broke out. Some of our men died. I was fortunate enough to only be grazed.

But we won. I told two of my men to tend to the wounded.

Ryu was finally silent.

"Now disarm the bomb." I growled and kicked him. He went to the ground, but didn't say anything.

"... Seo-yeong... the 10 minutes are up. He must have disarmed the--no... why would he now..." *Mute looked horrified as she processed everything. "But then, that means... it was a bluff the entire time? No, the bomb _could_ just be defective somehow... but... fuck, Seo-yeong, I... almost gave him control of the ship..."

I slumped. I was exhausted, but at least it was finally over.

That's what I thought, but then I noticed the look of panic on *Mute's face.

"Ryu, call them off!" *Mute ordered.

"What's going on?" I asked, starting to panic myself.

"There's Electoral Monitors attacking our forces at the computer core! They're trying to force their way in, and they out number our men." *Mute quickly explained.

"What!?"

"Do you think I wouldn't have a back up plan? That I would pin everything on a bluff? ... That was only my plan to take control of the ship without firing a single shot... I moved my pieces before you even shut down the rail system and concentrated near the computer core." Ryu told us as he got back onto his feet.

"I'm sending all nearby men to the core." *Mute told me, trying to stay calm.

"Call them off, Ryu!" I barked and punched him again. I knocked him to the floor.

Spitting out blood, he refused. "... No..."

"Seo-yeong," I turned to look at *Mute. She was scared. We both were scared. "If I die, take care of the sh--"

"Ma'am!! Ma'am!?" I got onto the comm. line and demanded to know what was going on.

The computer core had been breached. There was fighting going on, collateral damage was suffered.

... I declared a state of martial law. I ordered Security to crush this rebellion and protect the ship...

... by the end of the night, we had retaken control of the computer core, but that didn't change the fact that many people died...

... including Councillor *Mute.


	2. A Small Hope

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seo-yeong, 한국/Korean, March 23, 4045

It's been two weeks since the fighting began. Most of the fighting is over, but we're still hunting down the remnants of the Neo-Confucians, who stage terrorist attacks and wage guerrilla warfare on the ship. We're still under martial law, but I'm cooperating with re-instated Chief Councilor Smith.

These two weeks have been exhausting. We're still here... most of us, anyway... but the ship is damaged and people are dead. At least my daughter is still safe, but neither of us go anywhere without guards any more.

 

I have received some good news, though. News that gives me hope: the damage to the computer core isn't as bad as we feared.

That's not saying a lot, actually. The damage was undeniably bad. Just about any damage would have been. We've had to trouble shoot all sorts of problems around the ship because of the computer problems, but we're finally seeing some of the results of our attempts to salvage what data we can.

They think that we might be able to boot up *Mute.

They've managed to copy everything they could from her damaged core, and I'm told that, though a number of her functions have been lost, her core code is intact. It's our hope that if we get her online, she'll be able to rebuild herself over time.

There is one caveat, though. Most of what was damaged was her memories. The data she'd compiled over the last 1600 years. We haven't spent the time to fully figure out what was and wasn't lost. We're hoping we can just ask her herself when we try to start her up.

... but, if a person is made who they are by their experiences... does that mean the *Mute I knew and loved is dead?


	3. fml

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *Mute, 한국/Korean, March 24, 4045

Fuck my life! Everything on this ship has gone to hell, and I barely have any idea what happened! I don't know what happened for the last two years! Hell, the last two damn weeks!

Not to mention the roughly hundred year gaps in my memory! I don't remember the 37th century! The 35th century! I don't remember when we even started this voyage any more!

I've got blind spots all over the ship. When I woke up I couldn't even call a clock function to figure out what year it was!

I just have to piece things together from logs and what people tell me.

... but from what I have been told, I guess I'm actually pretty fucking lucky to have to deal with any of this shit.

Well, I'm in bad shape, but it is at least my understanding that the worst of it is over already. Still, I'm expecting the next hundred year to _suck,_ but I'll see to it that we get through it or I'm not *Mute, Chief of Security!

 

I'm pretty worried about Seo-yeong, though. It's pretty obvious that she's been going through a lot. When I booted up, all pissed off and confused, I saw her and she looked like hell.

"... Seo-yeong, what the fuck happened!?" I demanded.

Seo-Yeong was stunned when I said that. At time I just wanted answers, but thinking about it now, I think that behind all that surprise and teary make up, she was happy. "You... you remember me..." She choked out.

At that point I still had no idea what had happened, but I realized right then ... whatever happened to the ship... whatever happened to me...

... I must have almost died.


End file.
